Japan Lover Me Box + Lifeeee

I just realized I haven’t posted about this newest product at Japan Lover Me Store! We have received many requests about having our own subscription box / “Japan” Box. Since we are still finding ways on how to work on this (our main product categories are Japanese arts & antiques + vintage souvenir jackets), we’re trying out this kind of mystery box first. Baby steps first, ね! : )

We have partnered with Mad Tee Party, a shirt store in the Philippines that carries Little Miss Paintbrush‘s designs. We all work together in producing these Japanese-inspired merchandise + content and I couldn’t be more proud to have their stuff available for JLM’s overseas fans.

For our first regular JLM Box, the JapanLover will receive a Mad Tee Party merch (tote bag / shirt) that they chose + assorted lifestyle items ranging from stationery goods, souvenir items, plushies, and so much more! In the future, we’d like to produce and print our own zines, stationery collection, and other creative things we could think of. Earlier this year, we have launched our first-ever line of original-produced souvenir jackets (designed by the whole team). Hopefully in the coming years, we will be able to offer a wider range of products designed by our super talented & forever down-to-earth Creative Head, Chichi Romero.

Recently in Japan, it’s becoming a little bit colder and colder everyday. Not sure if autumn is already coming.. but these aki / august-themed souvenir jackets are really making me excited about this “layering” season, haha!

Are you guys already following @JapanLoverMe on instagram? If not yet, you should!

The team has been working together to make our instagram account (131k JapanLovers & counting, wow!!) to be #FeedGoals and here is the result. Every other day, Chichi posts something about Yokai (ghosts / supernatural beings in Japan.. don’t be scared haha). Her art interpretation is really cute and worth every likes / いいね！^^

Well I guess, that would be all for these JLM-related updates!

As for #LifeRecently, all I could say right now is I’ve never worked this intense in my life, lolol.

“Adulting is so hard, huhu!” – Kaila Ocampo (A Struggling Millenial)

At the moment, I’m juggling many things and even during weekends, I have some work to do. I feel that this is the rocky / challenging path of any freelancer / creative person. 3 months ago (last June), I left my stable job at our company to pursue what I’ve always wanted to do. It was a scary jump for me but I did it anyway. Right from the start, I made myself aware about all the consequences and sacrifices I’d have to make to get everything worked out well. Not all are successes as of now and I’m still experimenting everything how to survive monthly but I will just believe in this statement… “I will get there.” It will take some time but eventually.. slowly, I’ll reach my goals.

It’s been really hard these days but I’m still keeping my chin up, of course. These past few weeks.. I have to make time to create Kaila-style content, do the overall job for Rainbowholic Shop (admin work / customer support / shipping / etc.), accomplish my duties as the Creative Director for JLM Store (twice a week, from 10am – 8/9PM), and soooon (tomorrow lol).. I will be having part-time work as a substitute teacher in an English school. Wew! Go, girl! My months have been planned out already. Sometimes I’d wish to have worries of a child (who doesn’t have to care about paying bills + still enjoying life lol). I honestly do not know how my parents raised 5+ children on their own. At this age of 26, I’m even having a hard time to raise myself lolol. I think that as you get older, you would learn how to empathize more with other people (especially with the elderly). During difficult times like this (obviously, I am waaaay off from the shores of my comfort zones lol), I have learned to be assertive and how to be mindful about how I spend my time. I’ve discovered many tricks on how to save money especially when you’re living in a first world country like Japan. There was a time (2 weeks ago? Haha) I only had 500 JPY left after paying all the bills + shipment fees.. and I spent the entire night trying to figure out which items from my current closet / room I could sell in an online marketplace here in Japan. Next morning, 10+ of my items got sold in a few hours! I could not believe it. My ass got saved, omg! That experience really taught me a lot about doing the best of what I could and that in some miraculous way, I will survive. Haha!

Many people probably perceive me as someone who rarely has any problems because of what I post on social media / my blog / youtube. However, if you’re a reader of my blog, you would know that I’m really a human being.. who has so many life experiences (a mix of great and not-so-good) and I like sharing this mix on this platform. So if you are like me right now who is also struggling to meet both ends (+ of course, while being a winner at life.. yay), hang in there my friend. We will survive this phase. Gambarimashou!!

Thanks for reading until this last part. It feels good to write about my feelings / current state (mixed feelings lolol). I am excited for the day when I would randomly read these paragraphs and just laugh at myself afterwards, haha! I feel like a crazy person because I’m giving myself a pep talk while in huhu mode lol. Crazy is good, I guess.

3 thoughts on “Japan Lover Me Box + Lifeeee”

Thank you for the life update, Kaila! I was wondering if you might share what an average day is like for you. I am a freelancer and work from home but I always find it so hard to stick to any kind of schedule… And you seem to be juggling so many things! I would love to hear more about how you plan your day!